“Obesity is a chronic disease, prevalent in both developed and developing countries, and affecting children as well as adults.”—World Health Organization (WHO).
Obesity at the molecular level causes multiple issues eventually leading to the inhibition of IRS’s which stands for Insulin receptor substrate. IRS plays a crucial role in the cascade of events for properly insulin signaling in the brain.
Our research article summed up obesity (over overnutrition) causing three main issues and those were: increase in fatty acids due to a high fat diet (HFD), insulin resistance, and chronic low-grade inflammation. Each of these issues have their own molecular pathway that stem from overnutrition and cause IRS complex’s to be inhibited. The main image encompasses all three issues at the molecular level.
As you read and could see from the drawing I made, obesity physically alters brain function and can cause permanent damage to areas in the brain where insulin receptors are located.
Dictionary.com defines a disease as “a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.”
With that, it’s clear that obesity should and is classified as a disease, but some people today would disagree. If there is no genetic predisposition, and you choose to get fat, that’s your issue and it’s not a disease. I would agree initially that someone who is obese and was skinny prior at some point decided to make poor nutritional changes and that lead them to eventually gain weight. Studies have come out stating that it’s only a period of time when you make poor food choices that causes an imbalance in glucose metabolism and energy homeostasis—thus leading to chemical changes in the brain and boom…obesity as a disease is born.
Maybe some would say that they agree it’s a disease, but since the individual made the decision to fall down that route, they don’t see that person as a priority for treating them over other diseases, but they should. First, our society is helping us become more obese by implementing so much sugar everywhere (because too much sugar is much more important/worse than too much fat) so it is already tough not to make poor food choices. Most importantly, people should care about treating obese people because their diseases automatically predispose the unborn child to the development of metabolic disorders which can lead to obesity.
Obesity Is a Disease.
